


stop the world (i wanna get off with you)

by euphoriaspill



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Consensual Underage Sex, Identity Issues, M/M, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 20:33:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30094707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euphoriaspill/pseuds/euphoriaspill
Summary: Li, who is really Zuko, has never been a good liar.
Relationships: Jet/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	stop the world (i wanna get off with you)

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to the jetko server for this <3

Jet is always half-asleep after he comes— moves in a drowsy haze as he traces the edge of his scar with a callused fingertip, his ragged stump of an ear and the rubbery skin all around it. “You never told me how you got this.”

Li, who is really Zuko, feels the pit of his stomach drop the way it did when he was young, falling from a jacaranda tree he wasn’t supposed to climb in one of the winding gardens. He broke his arm in two places and was in a splint for months. An ordinary anecdote, except for where those gardens were. “From a firebender,” he says to stall for time like a kid who doesn’t know the answer when he’s called on in class— also a pertinent simile for him, when he went to the Peers School. He can’t claim it happened in a training accident, because that raises the question of what he was training _in._

 _“_ No _shit,_ not from a waterbender,” Jet says, rolling his eyes. Then he rolls over onto his side, his legs tangled up in the sheets on the futon. They need to get dressed before Longshot and Smellerbee come home. “I guess I’m pushing for more details… though you don’t owe me the story.” The expectant way his voice trails off says otherwise.

Li, who is really Zuko, has never told it to anybody. Lets the poison ferment inside of him like a scorpion-snake bite that won’t heal. He doesn’t remember the details even if he wanted to, amorphous and slipping through his fingers when he tries to grasp at him. “I disrespected him,” he finally says. “He tried to get me to fight him, and I wouldn’t... so he marked me. So I’d remember my cowardice forever.” 

( _I_ _deserved it?_ He’s leaving out the most crucial bit, the linchpin.)

He can’t keep the lie going forever, probably, too many of the details can’t be made to add up and it’s an unsolvable equation. Azula got all the skill at it in the family, leaving no scraps behind for him, as is her wont. This is all like something out of someone else’s life, especially the part where Jet likes him and wants to spend every moment of every day with him. He doesn’t know what Jet thinks when he looks straight into his eyes, a bright shade of gold that’s almost exclusive to the royal family, the cognitive dissonance it takes to deny the truth— that he’s from one of the colonies, maybe, a Fire Nation soldier’s byblow. Maybe it’s just not something he lets himself think about. Li, who is really Zuko, is a champion at that, so he understands. 

“I’m not a good person,” Jet says, apropos of nothing. Twists his hands together and looks out the window, at the sliver of the setting sun painting him a brilliant orange-red. “If you knew the things I’ve done— I had to come to Ba Sing Se for a reason.” 

Li, who is really Zuko, doesn’t think he’s done anything ‘good’ for anybody but himself ever since he was thirteen— except the time he defended that Earth Kingdom village, which ended as well for him as things usually do. He’s a person who survives, like a cockroach-spider, and worries about morality later. “Like what?” he asks drily. “I’m pretty hard to shock, trust me.” 

“I tried to drown a village,” he says, and wow, that actually is worse than he was expecting. “I thought it was for a good reason, that the ends justified the means when it came to getting rid of the Fire Nation, but I was wrong. I took advantage of people who trusted me. Failed people who trusted me.”

 _I burned down a village trying to capture a twelve-year-old child, who I tried as hard as I could to pretend wasn’t an_ actual _child, more like a spirit walking around in a human body. If I ever see him again? I can’t promise I’ll hold back. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s failure._

“I’m a pretty good liar,” Jet adds before Li, who is really Zuko, can reply. “Which makes me good at sniffing them out... except in your case, you know, your average toddler comes up with better excuses with their hand in the mochi jar. Nobody’s buying your traveling circus backstory.” Li, who is really Zuko, is tempted to stick his tongue out at him. Then Jet’s voice loses the teasing note. “Whatever you’re hiding, whatever you think you can’t tell me... I promise, I’d understand. We’re all trying to start over here.” He leans over and kisses Li, who is really Zuko, on the corner between his lips and cheek. “I want to know everything about you.”

He tries to imagine it— opening his mouth, telling the truth in the artless way that comes so naturally to him. Vomiting it all out in one go. _Jet, whatever you’re thinking, it’s worse. I’m the fucking_ prince _of the Fire Nation. Growing up, I was told that my ancestors were Agni’s descendants on earth and that we had the divine right to conquer yours. I ate five-course dinners every night while you starved and fended for yourself and robbed military encampments to survive. We’re taking ‘sleeping with the enemy’ to a whole new level here._

Would Jet attack him in the next second? Worse, would he just laugh and refuse to believe it, a tale more convoluted than any he’s offered up before? 

Li, who is really Zuko, who is becoming Li more and more by the day, like a caterpillar-worm transforming inside a cocoon— flips Jet over onto his back and straddles him, feels him grow hard again under his thighs. “You already know everything important,” he says, and maybe for once, that’s the truth. 


End file.
